Eliminate worry and start living… HAVE FAITH!

I’m shocked at how many people choose to live in a state of worry and doubt. This produces stress, causes illness and ruins opportunities for ‘success’. Stop worry and doubt NOW! Instead, HAVE FAITH!

Have FAITH! As a letter written to the Hebrews stated 2000 years ago,  “faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.” Note the keywords ASSURANCE and CONVICTION. Get rid of doubt. Shun uncertainty. This is the REAL ‘secret’.

Have FAITH in God. I KNOW He exists. I have conversations with him regularly throughout every day of my life. Unlike friends, employers, clients, even extended family, HE has NEVER let me down or gone back on a promise.

Have FAITH in yourself. Over the past half century, I’ve met ‘captains of industry’ and top performers in hundreds of fields. They posses incredible FAITH in themselves, their abilities and WORK HARD, applying all their abilities and passions to their careers.

Have FAITH in the organisation employing you. If you cannot believe with conviction in your organisation, it’s time to move on! You are no good to it or to yourself. If you DO have FAITH in your organisation, you will naturally work harder, longer, more effectively and be an inspiration to others.

FAITH is a MUST have, MUST use, MUST live-by tool for success. Stop worrying and doubting. Have FAITH!

Smile maker: Englich words and their daffynishons.

Avoidable: A bullfighter’s goal.
Baloney: Your shin.
Burglarize: What burglars see with.
Counterfeiters: Workmen remodeling kitchens.
Defeat: Under de-knees.
eclipse: English on-line barber shop.
Heroes: Fisherman in a boat with no motor.
Misty: Tiger Woods creating a divot.
Selfish: Wet market. Also sells meat.
Subdued: Navy guy in submarine.

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Career Success : The Four Compass Points for Raising Your Career

Michael Podolinsky, trainer and certified speaking professional of Podolinsky International shares with Human Resources on what he feels are the four key “compass points” that can help you achieve success in your career.

Pushing Yourself

When was the last time you PUSHED Yourself? I’m not talking just working hard. I’m not talking about putting in long hours. I’m not talking about working until you are exhausted. Most of the world’s population suffers through one or more of these every week and sometimes all 3 every day. I’m talking about pushing yourself beyond your normal capabilities; PUSHING yourself beyond your pay grade or level of experience. How long has it been since you really GAVE yourself a physical, mental, social, spiritual challenge or target that seemed nearly impossible to reach or so SCAREY to imagine doing? If you cannot remember the last time, maybe it’s time you get busy and PUSH yourself.

Worthwhile growth does not come gradually, it comes in spurts. Remember as a kid having ‘growing pains’ when you had a ‘growth spurt’? It hurt. But you ‘shot up’ a ‘thumb width’ or more in a week or two.

Think about some successes you had that could have been tragedies:

• Did you ever buy a house you were not sure you could afford and found buying it changed you? Chances are, you became more focused, dedicated and within a short period of time, that home was no longer a ‘stretch’.
• Did you talk someone into hiring you for a job or project and when you got it, reality set-in and you were stressed to the max? Yet, you rose to the occasion and did an awesome job, advancing your career.

These experiences where we PUSH ourselves are opportunities for quantum growth. These life-defining episodes are what separate us from the average person who never dares, never tries and never risks ‘failure’. As a result, those people live ‘successfully’ in mediocrity.

PUSHING ourselves might be as simple as asking for bigger projects at work, setting STRECH goals for the year or signing up for a new course of study. Pushing ourselves might be has difficult as quitting a job to pursue the career of your dreams with no idea how to make it work or admitting yourself into a treatment facility for an alcohol or gambling addiction.

Remember, when PUSH comes to SHOVE, if you PUSH yourself, you are the one controlling your destiny. If someone has to SHOVE you into action, that person has some if not all of the power and control over your life. PUSHING ourselves is often the BEST way to grow and develop.

Smile Maker:  Three dreams of a woman:

To be as beautiful as her mother thinks.

To be as rich as her child believes.

To have a husband as wonderful as he thinks he is.

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Attitude Adjustment

We have heard it said that `Attitude determines our altitude.` But HOW do you adjust your attitude? Here are 8 quick tips to help you adjust your attitude to have a richer, more enjoyable your life:

1. Start your day a little earlier and less rushed. Hey, you are going to be tired anyway, right? At least if you get up earlier, you will not be so rushed. Getting up at 4 AM has really helped me get focused, get relaxed and accomplish some major things that had been nagging at me for years.

2. After you wash and get cleaned up, get your coffee or tea and take your vitamins, sit down and have 20 minutes of quiet time. If you have a religion you adhere to, read some of your scripture and meditate on its meaning. Then think how it will apply to your day. You WILL be focused and with a sense of peace in your heart. If you are a `free thinker`, read something inspirational and then figure out how you can inspire those around you.

3. If you did not do it the night before, make a `to do` list to ensure you have a good plan for the day. It helps with your attitude because direction gives you both control and as you accomplish tasks, you feel motivated and successful.

4.  Before going to work, leave a note for someone at home to find. Mom, dad, auntie, wife, husband…telling them you appreciate them and love them. After they find it, they will most likely look forward to seeing you next to tell you they appreciate your gesture. If you are in a sour mood when you see them next, their positive attitude about you can turn the worm in your heart to an attitude of happiness.

5. On the way to work, start thinking of what you will do, how you will do it and how successful you will be today. Start creating your self-fulfilling prophecy.

6. Smile. Forcing a big smile on your face changes your chemical balance and makes you feel better. It is a conditioned response. Now walking into work with a smile (everyone will wonder what YOU did last night) will get you more smiles back. (another conditioned response) Smiles from others makes you feel even better.

7. Got a tough task like correcting a negative person at work? Take a different tact. Do not call them into your office. Ask that person to take a walk with you. Breaking with the mould will surprise that person and may just finally get through to her or him. Also, you will feel better walking as will she/he because walking stimulates your endorphins. Rather than attack, ask questions like, `How did that project go?` `Why do you think it went wrong?` `Rather than blame anyone, what would make sure it never went wrong again?` Then comment on the beautiful day and look the person in the eye, `You have SO MUCH potential. I see it. (SMILE) Do you?`You will have accomplished the reprimand and motivated TWO people at the same time.

8. On the way home, rather than think about the problems with sick children you will encounter, the fact the maid or spouse probably did or did not do something or the frustrations of the day you want to vent, think of how happy you will be to be home. (SMILE) Think of the hug you will give/get. Think of that cool beer or juice will taste. Think of taking a short shower to refresh yourself and putting your feet up while you listen to your favourite music. Then make that happen for you.   An old quote from Abe Lincoln, `People are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.is really true. Amazing how you will have a better attitude if you just make sure you do!

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Recreate Your Life for the Better.

We are a composite of 3 elements, REPUTATION, EGO and CHARACTER. Understanding these 3 elements and building them can boost both our satisfaction in life and the success we enjoy in our field of endeavour, RECreating our lives for the better.

REPUTATION is what others think of us. We acquire our reputation by how we talk and how we act. When our speech and actions are moral, fair and based upon sound judgment, we develop a good Reputation. This Reputation is a bank account full of business, family and friendship possibilities.

EGO is what we think of ourselves. Kept in check, it does not overshadow and drown out our Reputation. An Ego out of control makes null and void any credits earned in the Reputation bank account.

CHARACTER is what God and family know of us. The public `face` comes off when we are home and with those we love and they see, hear and experience WHO we really are inside. If we teach children not to steal but sneak them into a movie theatre on a child`s ticket when they are too old to qualify, they learn what you preach is not what we really believe.
If we apologise to someone at work for offending him, particularly when we do not like that person, we speak volumes about our CHARACTER and EGO. Doing so makes it harder for that person to speak ill of us, preserving our REPUTATION.

When our EGO is small, and our CHARACTER noble and large, usually the REPUTATION we receive is positive and well deserved. If you asked your boss, colleagues, family members, friends and your innermost voice today about your Reputation, Ego and Character, would you be happy with the feedback?

It is always a good time to RECreate our lives for the better.

To have your team learning these lessons and others to boost their productivity and effectiveness, please contact us. In addition to training, we speak at conventions, conduct strategic planning retreats, sales meetings and facilitate sessions to optimise leadership development, team growth and personal productivity.

3 Ways To Build Self Confidence

It is a fact that confident people get hassled less, get more promotions, earn more money, get to date the people they want to date and in general, have richer more fulfilling lives.

Here are 3 ways to boost and build your own self confidence.

1) Positives self-talk. If you catch yourself saying, I’m only a… or I’m not sure I can… or Thank you, but I didn’t do that much. You are your own worst enemy. Confident people always programme their mental software with positive statements like, I am positive I can accomplish this by the deadline. I am sure you will be happy with my…Thank you! I worked hard to achieve this result for you.

2) Know what you are good at and make sure you use those traits and skills as much as possible. If you are not good at written communication, give the report orally or develop someone else to help you with the parts you are weak at. Moses had a speech impediment. He spoke to his people through his brother Arun. My teachers told me, Michael, with your spelling and penmanship, you will never amount to ANYTHING! So I bought a computer with spell-check and a laser printer to compensate, giving me confidence.

3) Learn the skills you fear. I was shy and lacked confidence so I took karate to gain confidence and self esteem. I almost drowned as a kid so I took drown-proofing and swimming lessons and can swim over an hour in open water. I trouble expressing myself so I committed 4 years to Toastmasters and learned to polish off my speaking flaws. Think of the 3 areas of knowledge you lack for advancement, study them hard every night after work for an hour and a year, you will be so confident, you will BEAM with enthusiasm.

The point is, confidence is a learned skill. It starts within but requires actions to develop. You can be more confident know you are finally doing something about your confidence. Be more confident today as you grow in confidence for tomorrow.

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3 Lessons Learned in Shanghai, China

4 days in Shanghai is not enough to `know` the city, but I did pick up some lessons I thought might help you, particularly those of you who have not been there yet.

Lesson #1: Size matters. 16 million people living on 6000 Square Meters means they go vertical. Unlike New York, Singapore or any major cities which have a `downtown` or `CBD` area where you have a dozen or two really big buildings, Shanghai has 10 times the skyscrapers of New York and square kilometre after square kilometre of high rise apartments.

Because China is building cities and infrastructure to house a city population to grow by over 350 million people in the next 8 years, the enormity of their big picture problems might be one reason they overlook the individual`s problems.

I am not saying individual rights are not important. They just seems dwarfed by the size and scope of everything else. Rather than judge, viewing the size helps me put China`s position into perspective.

For your own life, when things seem a little overwhelming, do not feel depressed for feel bad if you get a little worked up. Put it all into perspective and relax a bit.

Lesson #2:  Build it beautiful and then you do not have to decorate it. The buildings and skyscrapers in Shanghai are so unique and architecturally attractive. As such, they have little need for any extra `decoration.`

I compare that to many of the apartment blocks I see in Singapore and elsewhere that are just, well, apartments. Because they have no inherent beauty, they get odd and `creative` paint jobs.

Question: Are you building something at work now that is so beautiful that it sells itself, be it your career, your project or your life?

Lesson #3: Technology and planning. The city I came from, Minneapolis, Minnesota, after 30+ years of heel dragging, finally installed a `revolutionary` trolley to ferry people from the airport to the downtown last year. It runs on railroad tracks and moves up to 30 miles per hour but not for more than a few seconds at a time.

Shanghai has a magnetic elevated monorail that runs between the international airport and the main part of the city, connecting to the national railroad. It travels at 200+ kilometres per hour. Maybe Minneapolis should try to catch up to China?

Technology in the brain is useless. Application with appropriate planning is everything. What `technology` have you heard about you should be applying to your job, your family or your life?

Shanghai is amazing and helped me think through my assumptions about China and more importantly, the way I approach my own life.  Got comments or questions? Just leave your comments here.

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Have some FUN! Take a break!

‘Work hard, play hard.’  You’ve got to find time for some rest and relaxation.

Get together with some of your best friends. It makes you feel better and give you the energy to do better everyday.

Do something special. Energize yourself.

Have some  Fun!

To your success, find out how Michael Podolinsky will help you and your organization by browsing through the links below:

• Browse through Michael’s Products, Speech Topics, Seminar & Workshop Topics and  Public Seminars
• Check out what they say about Michael
• Click here to contact Michael to find out more about his training

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